Trader of the Month – June 2026: Marco Wins with a +25.9% Return and €68,432 in Profits Through Systematic Trading

In June 2026, Marco was named Unger Academy’s Trader of the Month. A long-time systematic trading student, he has transformed his passion for the financial markets into a structured, professional operation over the years.

His journey shows how study, consistency, and a rigorous approach to systematic trading can help traders develop increasingly advanced skills and build an operation aligned with their goals.

Starting with algorithmic trading, Marco gradually expanded his knowledge to include options strategies and eventually built a fully-fledged trading team whose activities he now oversees.

A +26% Return with a 3.6% Drawdown

In June, Marco achieved an excellent balance between return and risk control, two factors that should always be evaluated together in systematic trading.

His key performance metrics were:

• Return: +25.9%
• Net profit: €68,432
• Maximum drawdown: 3.6%

These results earned him first place in the June 2026 Trader of the Month contest.

Comparing the Month’s Top Performances

The contest does not evaluate absolute return alone. The judging panel also considers the risk taken to achieve it, the capital employed, and the overall trading volume managed.

In addition to Marco, two other traders delivered noteworthy performances in June:

• Davide posted the highest absolute return at +35.5%, but experienced a considerably higher drawdown of 17.6%.
• Ricardo ended the month with a +21.7% return and a particularly low drawdown of 2.5%.

Marco’s result fell between these two performances, with a +25.9% return and a 3.6% drawdown.

Although Ricardo achieved a particularly favorable return-to-drawdown ratio, the judging panel also considered the capital and trading volume managed by Marco. Generating a high return while keeping drawdown under control across a larger-scale operation requires considerable management expertise.

His victory reinforces one of the fundamental principles of systematic trading: returns cannot be evaluated separately from the risk taken and the overall characteristics of the trading operation.

From Systematic Trading to Options: Marco’s Journey

Marco built his trading operation through years of study, development, and experimentation.

Over time, he expanded and combined his expertise across several areas:

1.Systematic and Algorithmic Trading

Using clearly defined, verifiable rules allows him to analyze strategies using historical data and reduce the influence of emotion on trading decisions.

2.Options Strategies

Adding options strategies allowed him to broaden his trading operation while focusing on diversification and the overall management of the risk-return profile.

3.Work Organization

Marco created a structured team whose activities he oversees, gradually transforming his passion for trading into a professional project.

His journey is an example of how the principles learned during a training program can be developed and adapted over time, ultimately leading to a personalized trading framework aligned with a trader’s skills and ambitions.

Diversification and Capital Management

Marco’s story shows that a systematic trader’s growth does not depend solely on the ability to develop individual profitable strategies.

As capital, the number of systems, and trading volumes increase, portfolio construction, diversification, and the coordination of the entire operation become increasingly important.

This requires a comprehensive perspective: each strategy must be assessed not only on its individual results, but also on its contribution to the portfolio and the additional risk it introduces.

This transition from developing individual strategies to coordinating a broader trading operation is precisely what defines Marco’s evolution.

Method, Discipline, and a Long-Term Vision

Marco’s June performance is the result of a journey built over time through study, discipline, and continuous improvement.

He started with algorithmic trading, expanded his operation through options, and ultimately built a team dedicated to managing trading strategies.

His victory in the June 2026 Trader of the Month contest therefore reflects not only the quality of his performance, but also the level of maturity he has reached in managing capital and risk.

Congratulations to Marco on this important achievement. We wish him continued success as he develops his professional trading project.

Learn More About Trader of the Month

If you would like to learn more about the “Trader of the Month” competition, our monthly contest exclusively for Unger Academy students that awards a €1,000 Amazon gift card to the participant who achieves the best live trading performance using the Unger Method™, click here.

If you would like to read the stories and results of previous winners, click here.